Posted in Europe, Hydraulic fracking, United KingdomThe High Court has refused to grant an interim injunction preventing Cuadrilla from carrying out hydraulic fracking operations at the Preston New Road site in Lancashire. The ruling means that Cuadrilla can resume fracking in the UK for the first time since 2011.
Mr Justice Supperstone also refused permission for judicial review of Lancashire County Council’s decision over the adequacy of the risk assessment and emergency planning procedures.
Posted in Europe, Hydraulic fracking, United KingdomIneos has been granted planning permission on appeal for exploratory shale gas drilling in the Green Belt, near Rotherham.
In May 2017, petrochemical firm Ineos sought temporary permission for a period of five years for a shale gas well, access track and ancillary facilities at Common Lane, Harthill near Rotherham. Ineos claims that the site has been chosen because it is within an area of interest based on existing seismic data. Continue reading
Last Monday, a three-judge panel of the Pennsylvania Superior Court revived a trespass claim against a fracking company. The claim, which was previously defeated by summary judgment, could return to the trial court for determination of its merits.
In 2015, plaintiffs filed suit against the fracking company alleging trespass and conversion. Plaintiffs claim the company used hydraulic fracturing to extract natural gas beneath the plaintiffs’ property, where the company did not have a lease, from an adjacent tract on which it had a lease. Continue reading
Posted in Hydraulic fracking, Kansas, Midwest, United StatesA new study published this month purports to link seismic activity in Kansas to wastewater disposal associated with hydraulic fracturing. Justin Rubinstein, the lead researcher, suggested that further research was needed to examine the effects of wastewater injections, stating that this study was “the tip of the iceberg as far as what we’re going to learn.”
The study examined ongoing seismicity in two counties in southern Kansas from 2013-2016, observing correlations between increases in seismic activity subsequent to increases in wastewater disposal via deep-injection wells. Additionally, seismic activity appeared to decreased at the same time as economic and regulatory forces reduced wastewater injection. Analyzing over 6,845 earthquakes, the study also identified six earthquakes of magnitude 4 or greater in Kansas since 2012, the first such earthquakes in the state. Continue reading
Last month, in an article published in the journal Science Advances, economics professors at Princeton University, the University of Chicago, and the University of California, Los Angeles attempted to link fracking to low birth weight. The study is controversial, and has been criticized since its publication.
Over the course of ten years, Janet Currie, Michael Greenstone, and Katherine Meckel, the authors of the study, analyzed 1.1 million births in Pennsylvania, where fracking is common. They concluded that living within 1 kilometer of a fracking well while pregnant increased the odds that one’s baby would be born with a low birth weight by 25%. Continue reading
Posted in Europe, Hydraulic fracking, United KingdomOn January 12, 2018, exploration and production company Cuadrilla announced that it has recently discovered a “very sizeable quantity” of shale gas at its Bowland site in Lancashire (the Site).
Cuadrilla revealed it has drilled to a depth of 2.7km at the Site and to date has recovered 375 feet of core samples. When combined with data gathered from existing shale exploration wells, this has left the company optimistic as to its ability to “drill two horizontal wells…in gas rich zones”. This is complemented by the “excellent” rock quality in the vicinity. These properties are believed to make the site “very suitable to hydraulically fracture”.
Posted in Hydraulic fracking, United StatesThursday, the Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”) announced that it will publish a final rule to rescind a 2015 regulation requiring companies to disclose the chemicals they use in hydraulic fracturing.
Decried by both the BLM and oil and gas trade associations as costly and duplicative of existing regulations, the repeal of this rule marks the final nail in the coffin for a legal battle that began over two years ago. Continue reading
Posted in Hydraulic fracking, United StatesEarlier this week, the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) released an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking to solicit public comments for possible modifications to the Clean Power Plan (“CPP”). Continue reading
Late last month, a federal magistrate judge in Pennsylvania struck down a township’s ban on fracking activities. The ban, which prevented the injection of fracking waste into a well underlying the town, was preempted by state and federal law, said the judge.
The judge ruled that the ban was preempted by the federal Safe Drinking Water Act and Pennsylvania’s Act 13, which prevents municipalities from passing ordinances that regulate oil and gas activity except through limited channels, namely the state’s Municipalities Planning Code and Flood Plain Management Act. Continue reading
Posted in Hydraulic fracking, United StatesThe US 10th Circuit on Thursday dismissed the challenge to an Obama-era fracking rule that imposed strict requirements on oil and gas operators on federal and tribal lands. The rule was blocked in 2015 and never took effect.
The three-judge panel dismissed the case in its entirety—including the lower court’s decision to block the rule—in light of the fact that the US Bureau of Land Management earlier this year asked the court to pause its review of the rule and recently proposed a measure to rescind the Obama-era regulations. These actions followed the change in US administrations.
Said the court, “Our proceeding to address whether the district court erred in invalidating the BLM’s fracking regulation when the BLM has now commenced rescinding the same regulation appears to be a very wasteful use of limited judicial resources.”
The Obama-era requirements, which concern well casing, wastewater storage, and disclosure of chemicals used in fracking, have been the subject of dispute between industry and environmental and citizen groups since they were enacted in March 2015.
That dispute continues now as parties must determine whether the 10th Circuit’s dismissal of the district court’s decision to block the rule means the regulations proceed toward effect while BLM continues the rulemaking process aimed at rescinding the regulations, or whether the rule has effectively met its end.
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